Sinhalese & Tamils

I am writing here my point of view on the so called ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. I hope this saves my time explaining my overseas friends "What is this conflict". These are the typical questions that people had so far asked me and my answers as of my knowledge.

1. What is the Demography of Sri Lanka

Sri Lankan population comprises of 74% Sinhalese, 13% Native Tamils, 5.5% Indian Tamils,Moors 7.1% and rest other minorities. Please see ICTA for details.

2. When and why this conflict started?

This is purely an aftermath of imperialism though it wasn't intentional.

3. How do you justify that?

After independence of every country all systems in the country are adjusted to assure to be fair to majority of people irrespective of cast, creed or ethnicity. So Tamils got annoyed by changes to,

• Official language change
• Political system change
• Education system change
• Economic model change
• New colonies created by development projects.
  

Following is my point of view on how each of these aspects.

Official language change

Sri Lanka got independence in 1948 from Britain. By that time government official language was English and percentage of Tamils who worked in government service and administration was more than 50%. Because of low English literacy among Sinhalese they always felt the system is unfair for them. The reason for Tamils having better English literacy is because Tamils allowed to open up Christian missionary schools in the north and they attended those schools while most Sinhalese attended their own schools where Buddhism was taught.

Because of this unfairness majority of Sinhalese wanted to make Sinhala an state official language. Then shortly after independence a democratically elected prime minister

S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike made Sinhala an official language in 1956. This was a must and was part of the independance. However Tamils were against the move and after few discussions, protests and riots Tamil language also was made an official language of Sri Lanka. Few Sinhalese in Jaffna were got killed in the riots in 1956.

Political system change

Shortly after independence Tamil representation in the parliament and politics was significant due to two basic reasons,

• English being the primary language in administration
• Most of the politicians came out of densely populated districts. So the ratio of Tamils and Sinhalese in politics based on the population ratio of the densely populated districts such as Colombo and Jaffna.
  

This was not fair for the majority of people because there was no equal opportunity to reperesent in politics. But later constitution changes ensured that there is representation from every part of the country. The representation was made to depend on the population of each district. Though these constitutional changes ensured equal political opportunities to all parts of the country this brought down tamil representation closed to theoretical 18%.

Education system change

Education in Sri Lanka is totally free. But Sri Lanka is not yet a rich country to provide higher education for everyone. There is a huge competition among students to get selected for university education.
Before 1948 and shortly after Sri Lankan universities were operated in English medium and entrance was limited English speaking elite class. After independence and adoption of Sinhala as an official language the universities became available to non English speaking students. But even in 1970s more than 50% of engineering and medicine graduates were Tamils. This was not because of the Tamils are smarter than others in Sri Lanka. But because of unavailability of proper education system and facilities to most remote parts of the country.
The university entrance was based on island wide common threshold of marks in grade 12 G.C.E advanced level examination. This system was so unfair to students in districts with less facilities in education.
Followed by the equal representation in politics from all over the country the university entrance too became based on a district quota system. This district quota was based on population of each district. This quota is subjected to change every year depending on the improvement of education of each district. With this quota system and free text books/cloths from government education became fair to everyone.
But most people in urban areas were not happy about this quota system because it effectively decreased the chances of getting selected for university entrance. Similarly the Tamils were affected greatly because the quota system decides the number of students entering to the universities irrespective of skill level.
But I believe this was one of the best decisions by the government to give equal opportunities to students with less education facilities. But it would have been better if the government introduced the quota system gradually while increasing university facilities. http://countrystudies.us/sri-lanka/46.htm

Economic model change

The free economic policies brought in by then government in 1980 affected almost every industry in Sri Lanka. Farmers in Jaffna got affected due to government's move to import food from india and let the prices float with global market prices. The same thing happened to textile industry and several other industries. In my opinion this is a bad decision by the government in 1980. But affect on the people was equal to both sinhalese and tamils.

New colonies created by development projects

Specially the tamils say the Mahweli project benefitted only Sinhalese. This is because majority of people settled in new colonies are sinhalese. This happened because those who were displaced by the hydro power project got priority. And tamils claim the land of new colonies belong to Tamils historically. But this claim is a total lie. The land used as new farms/colonies are vastly unpopulated land belonged to the government. But there several other development project that totally benefitted tamil farmers. Some projects implemented and some proposed project was not implemented due to the armed conflict started by the separatists.


4. When was this conflict started?

The conflict started in 1956 with Sinhala was made an official language in Sri Lanka. But the real armed struggle was started in 1983 when LTTE killed 13 Sri Lanka military personnel in Jaffna. During this period then government was afraid of the emergence of leftist party JVP. And the ruling party UNP was finding a way to suppress this movement. Taking advantage of arousal of racism consequent to killing in Jaffa by LTTE, some ruling party members launched a struggle against Tamils all over the country.

Eventually the ruling party banned the leftist party JVP and arrested its leaders charging them for organizing the struggle against Tamils. But it was the ruling party who persuaded Sinhalese to rob and kill Tamils all over the country.

In this incident around 2500 Tamils were got killed throught out the country and Many others were robbed and chased away by Sinhalese. This was an stupid outrage of people backed by government. Read more on the Black July on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_July.

However in this riots lots of Tamils were protected by Sinhalese in many cities. I am not in anyway justifying this incident.

End results of this riot were,

• Separatists got rationale for the conflict. This was the aim of their killing of 13 military personnel.

• Lots of Tamils expatriated taking political asylum mostly in European countries and determined to assist separatist movements for taking revenge.

• The leftist party JVP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janatha_Vimukthi_Peramuna) got strong in 1988 and struggled against government. Thousands of young men and women were killed in this struggle.
  

• Separatists got strong with the help of expatriated Tamils(So called Tamil diaspora)

5. What is happening now

This is the most important question to which I cannot answer without explaining the above background. What Happens now,

• Tamil diaspora provides assistance to Separatists just because they are taking revenge on their behalf. Diaspora has no intention of returning home ever. They don't care who suffers by the struggle. They know for sure that they are not going to win the a separate land in Sri Lanka for another hundreds of years. So it is clear why they are helping Separatists. It is only hatred and taking revenge.
  

• Separatist leaders too having the same mindset as the diaspora even if they live in Sri Lanka. They drive the struggle while having a good life inside their controlled area. They don't care who suffers and when they win a separate land and peace. In a way they are trapped by the on going system driven by diaspora. They promote suicide bombers, child soldiers and keep blasting bombs and attacking Sinhalese as long as they can.
  

• Separatists claim for a land that they don't historically deserve. There is absolutely no logic behind the claim. This is considered by Sinhalese as endless craving of Separatist Tamils.
  

5. Bottom line

• Separatist Tamils are struggling for something unachievable in the near future. Only way of achieving a separate land in Sri Lanka is to make Sinhalese a minority by growth of Tamils in the Island through reproduction.
  

• If the conflict wasn't there in the past 25 years, Sri Lanka would be a well developed proud nation of the whole world. When the economy grows people tend to ignore petty differences.
  

• Hatred of diaspora may be justifiable but the suffering of Sri Lankans (Tamils than Sinhalese) is not in any means justifiable. All suffering Sri Lankans should understand the hatred and intention of diaspora and their supporters. Then intend not be pawns for ever.
  

• It is time to enjoy the achievements of the 25 year conflict. The government and Sinhalese have become so flexible and have brought rules and regulation to minimize any possible discrimination now. It is time to put an end to hatred however it began in the first place.
  

Vigeland Sculpture Park

Nude Sculptures

All sculptures in the Vigeland park are nude. But none depicts sex. They depicts human being, behavior and relationship with rest of the world. It could be affection,love,sex,hatred,jealousy or any emotion or interaction with one another.

It is nice to assume you are an alien (non human) and observing these sculptures to understand who is a human being. May be this park will serve that purpose if human cease to exist some day.



Human Tower




The nude sculptures of the human tower and surround are made of monolithic rock and will last thousands of years. They depict who is human being by showing following aspects.

• How Human being look like at all ages.

• What are the behavior of human being at each ages (at infancy, toddler, teenager up to elder stages)
• Who does what at what age for the well being of the human kind.

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Longer Day Light

It is 9.00pm in Oslo, Norway. Still I can read a book under natural light.

Is this good or bad.

For whom?.

May be this is good for all plants but definitely not for human beings and animals.

Time travel in cyber space

I wish I could time travel in cyberspace? At least as an observer?

Is this a stupid thought?

Simply I want to set my computer's time as of last weekend and want to see a particular website in the same state as it was by that time. Is this thought stupid?.

Nevertheless what about setting my machine time to a future date and see what the state of all my software systems such as bank accounts, weather, climate, technology (at least things we can predict with current status and trends) etc?

Are all these stupid thoughts ?...

If so forget it.....

ASP Video Tutorials

I got some free time to refresh my knowledge on ASP.net and the video tutorials on asp site are very comprehensive and I think it is the quickest way to refresh knowledge on ASP.Net.

If one has basic knowledge on web site development these are a good set of tutorials to start with asp.net.

Most of the basic tutorials use the express editions of Visual studio tools which are freely download-able from Microsoft site.

Happy.. asp.net..

Best use of Victories

It is now obvious fact that President Mahinda Rajapakse and his government is achieving several victories after independence. Victories such as,

1. Defeating LTTE terrorism and creating unity among all ethnic groups.
   
2. Forming the most strong parliament in the history
3. Better economic policies that makes Sri Lanka stand strong amidst global economic recession
   

So these victories make everyone feel better than ever. It is a well known fact that after a victory it is good time to make decisions on the future strategies. More over now President Mahinda Rajapakse has more presidential power, parliment majority power and ability to be elected as president for another 6 years. So as the most powerful person in the recent history of Sri Lanka, it is time to make use of the opportunity.

For what...?

• To create a better future for Mahinda's family, relations and supporters by involving in business, utilizing government money, foreign aids, loans etc?

Or,

• To bring in new laws to prevent recurence of the past ethnic and political conflicts.
  
• To bring in new national policies by the consititution for country's business model, security model, political model, goverment services model, development strategy, education, health care etc etc.
• To create new businesses/opportunities for everyone in the country including Mahinda's family, relations and supporters (especially Karuna group) by making use of all possible resources efficiently.

I am eagerly waiting to see what will happen in next few years.....

Sledging

We did sledging as part of the team building exercise.

We went to the same place at Voksenkollen by tram on route 1 and rented the sledges. Got the tram again to Frognerseteren. We climbed down 25m to where we start sledging. Just saw some of my team members went down on the sledge so... fast.

My first thought was "I cannot risk my life. I dont want to do this. I will go back and stay till these people finishes sledging". While I was waiting behind one of my Colombo collegues started on his sledge and found he is controlling the speed by pressing the foot on the gound.

So determined to give a try I started on my Sledge with both my feet on the ground. Wow..! is was so fun and so easy to controll the speed. Anyhow came to the meeting point some 500m below. We got some instructions from the experienced collegues on how to turn and control speed while keeping feet on the sledge.

To my astonishment It was a quick learning curve. Once we sledged down to Midstuen I was so confident that I can sledge with both feet on the sledge, turning to the correct path. But still not sure about controlling the speed.

Then started the fun rounds. Got tram back to Frognerseteren, came down sledging to Midstuen (about 3.2 km path). The tram pass is valid for the duration and we can travel as many times as we want. Like wise we did 5 rounds and in final round I could come down the distance of 3.2km in about 4 or 5 minutes. But it was on the final round I went out of the path and hit a pile of wood logs beside that made me realize excessive speed is dangerous even on a sledge.

After all it was so fun. Thanks everyone.

Skiing

I went for skiing for the first time in my life. It is really fun. Giving up the fear to fall down is the key to learn. It does not hurt much when you fall down on snow.
It is obviously not the right age for me to start learning skiing. Just after learning to walk is the right time to start skiing. More over I dont have any experience in a similar sport like Skating or surfing. If I had any experience I would find it easy to catch up.

Anyway it was fun to go skiing with few Norwegian (Swedish and Hungarian too) colleagues at Voksenkollen (Some 6 km north-west of Oslo city). We got tram on route 1 to reach Voksenkollen and Rented Skis (Skis, Boots and Poles) for 200 Kr per person. Skis are of different length and weights (stiffness).




Usually length of ski is selected to be the same as one's height. Theory behind the skis is that middle part of the skis should not touch the ground when you stand on both legs.
But when you put all your weight on one leg the ski straightens and middle of the ski (just beneath the boot) should touch the ground. Usually we apply a wax to make the middle of the ski to have more resistance.

Spent about one hour walking with skis before I could actually slide a considerable distance. By the time when we reached Frognerseteren I was proud of being able to slide on skis with less frequent falling :)

Passing a difficult era again

Again seeing a lot of bloodshed these days. I hope nobody on earth like to see so many people being killed. But I wish this is the last time in my life I see this happening in my country. Hopefully in the whole world. We should put a full stop to terrorism and the kind. In my life I first saw a bloodshed in 1983 where Tamils were robbed, chased away or killed throughout the country. In 1989 I saw lot of young men and women slaughtered by both government forces and JVP military arms. Then from time to time LTTE's bomb blasts and mass murders. And this time in the attempt to correct all political mistakes of the past.

I hope SL government eradicate terrorism from our land this time and bring hard and fast rules to avoid any such conflicts in the future.

I WISH I WILL NEVER SEE BLOODSHED AGAIN..!

Walking on the Frozen Sognsvann Lake

Took a subway from Majorstuen to Sognsvann lake. It was nice to see the frozen lake with about 2 feet snow layer. Just walked around the lake and crossed the lake without any difficulty.
Observed the fun of skiing and ashamed a little for not being able to do it. Anyway determined to come here again with skis and have the fun.
Returned to Majorstuen and again took the subway on route 1 to Frognerseteren. Frognerseteren is a mountain area from where the whole Oslo city is visible. It was very nice to see the Oslo city with the frozen sea.

Microsoft Security Training - A rare opportunity

Had a rare opportunity to take part in "Trust Worthy Computing" training by Microsoft professionals. Learned on Secure coding, Threat modelling/Analysis, Tools used to hack and explore code security/Attack surface analysis.

Thieves in Oslo, Norway?

I came to Oslo, Norway today with few other colleagues. An incident voided my presumption that Norway is such a peaceful country.
We arrived at hotel and waiting in the reception checking the room reservations. Seven of us kept all our bags aside and a bit relaxing till check-in procedure is done. One of my colleagues noticed that his bag with the laptop, passport and other documents is missing. At first we did not believe that the bag was stolen. But soon we realized that another bag also missing with the same content. There were only 5-6 people at the reception area other than 7 of us. However they must be very clever and expericend thieves to escape avoiding 14 eyes looking at the bags.

Beggary & Lottery

Beggary & Lottery ? Any relationships between the two?. I dont think so. Except that if a beggar wins a lottery that would be a wonderful coincidence. I believe the money going to be an utter waste.

Anyway I am not going to talk about a beggar winning a lottery.

How does the beggary and lottery affect Sri Lanka?

My opinion is that both should be banned. Why ?

Beggary

1. Most Beggars are spreading viruses and varies illnesses. Eventually government is paying the cost through free health care.
2. Underworld thugs, terrorists, prostitutes are connected to beggars. They are in the same network.
3. Beggary misuse the willingness of common public to donate.
4. Brings down the courage of common mass to be self-sustained.

In fact Sri Lanka doesnot seem to have any laws regarding begging in public. Most beggars make use of thier children or even infants to draw attention of the people. Sometimes very small children come begging. There are beggers with big wounds, infections etc creeping through crowded busses or trains. No once takes any action. No rules. Eventually government's free heath care pay the price.

Usually their is a network of beggars which most probably has a connection with drug addicts, then drug smugglers and gradually to prostitues and then to underworld

If beggary is completely banned, there will be a better way for the common public to channel their donations to the people who are really in need. They will plan lot more organized donations. Mostly buddhists are always encouraged to donate.

Lottery

There is a saying "The hope makes the life live". So this is one way of the government to keep some people alive. There are lot of people who spend a substantial portion of their income for lotteries. Specially there are lot of pensioners who go to town once a day just to buy a bottle of liquor and few lotteries. It is true that this bottle of liquor and lotteries keep them live a day. But imagine we did not have the lotteries?. Wouldnt they find another way to keep them happy?. Definitely they find a better way.

Long term effect on a nation for allowing the lottery and gambling is obvious. Making people believe in fortune brings down the courage of common mass to be self-sustained. Unrealistic daily hopes on fortune prevents people become organized enterprenuors. Also frequent disapointments (however small they are) not good for well being of a person.